Monday, February 10, 2014

Weekend Recap

Friday
After work, Aaron and I hosted a Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony viewing party pot luck at our place for a few friends. Our theme o America theme. I grilled up a bunch of hot dogs and our guests brought side salads, and an Olympic rings appetizer. For dessert we Olympic flame cupcake torches with whipped topping dyed yellow to look like fire.

We watched the opening presentation and the parade of nations, but called it quits before the torch lighting. We decided to switch from watching Sochi coverage to getting snuggled up and watched Nebraska.

Saturday
On Saturday evening Aaron and I celebrated our 8-year Dateiversary with dinner at The Peddler Steak House off of Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh. This is the second year in a row that we have picked a steak house for our celebratory dinner (last year we went to The Angus Barn, my choice).

The Peddler is family owned and has been serving fine seafood and aged beef since it opened in 1969. The restaurant is surprisingly small with only a few tables in the dining room and dark colors. Even though the decor is dated, Aaron and I both agreed that it should stay that way to retain it's intimate atmosphere and true mid century steak house feel. The part of the kitchen with the grill is open to the dining room and you can watch your meal being cooked.

They do not take small party reservations so Aaron and I went on the early side hoping to beat the dinner rush, but we still had a 1-hour wait before we were seated. A long wait for a restaurant that isn't downtown, yes, but it was worth it.

Prime Rib and New York Strip steaks are cut to size by The Peddler who brings them to your table on a wheeled cart and proudly educated you on the color and marbling of their aged meat. After you send your meat selection off to be seared over live charcoal, there is a full salad bar offered with every meal and baked potato fixings waiting for you at your table. Oh also, ordering both wine and dessert is totally worth it, especially if you are celebrating.

Aaron and I enjoyed a wonderful 4 course meal, reminisced about our past 7 dateiversaries, and we took some time to look at our 1st-year-of-marriage goals list that we created while we were on our honeymoon. We arrived at 6pm and didn't leave until after 9pm, which is longer than a typical dinner out, but I couldn't have had a better partner to spend my time with.

Sunday
We woke up early to beat the weekend morning rush at Costco. With a short list we clocked in at under 20 minutes, in the door, through checkout, and back to the car.

After lunch we met our friends Kelly and Carmen at our favorite local craft beer shop, Bottle Revolution for a drink and to try to win their annual beer raffle. Each member of Bottle Rev's beer club gets 1 ticket for a chance at exclusive beers. We had 3 tickets between us and all 3 tickets were called! After celebrating our victory we walked over to Buffalo Brothers for dinner.